At first Osi thought of different ways he could suggest to his team that they extend their crusade. At least for a few days. He decided the best way would be to compel them to stay to make up for the services they had cancelled.
However he was dissuaded from the idea before he could voice his opinion.
After the service as they sat round the dining table having lunch, each of them said words to the effect that they couldn't wait to leave Amaife the next day.
"Pastor...regardless of how it may look, the crusade was successful don't feel bad" Bukky seemed to sense his reluctance or rather she mistook his reluctance for sadness. Not that he was happy anyway.
"Taaaar! The crusade was horrible...since day one..the mistake was when the reverend bypassed me and handed the reigns to Osi...who is actually a good man but inexperienced" of course you should know who can make such a statement by now.
"Deacon can you say that to the Reverend face to face?" Ovie challenged him.
"Of course I can...the Reverend and I have a honest rapport between us"
Bukky scoffed then in an attempt to change the topic: "pastor would we hold any Virgil today?"
Osi snapped back to the present. He had drifted again. His mind was eons away. "Virgil? I think not...who would come sef?
We'd just have a two hour service...from 7-9"
"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Gregory asked him.
"As early as possible" the deacon answered on his behalf.
"For once I totally agree with you sir" Ovie said. He had been very vocal and eager to leave Amaife, ever since he stumbled on Okudili's dead body.
Osi didn't say anything. He wasn't sure he would be on the bus tomorrow.
That Sunday, after her father had left to join the 'victory march', instructing his daughters not to leave the house(specifically instructing Amara not to go to church) Amara kept on replaying the scene from earlier in the Virgil in her head. Paul had been stained with blood and Okudili's dead body had been found few minutes later. So Paul had been stained with Okudili's blood.
Paul was a killer and she was beginning to believe he was THE killer.
Did he kill Ezinne and the rest?
Had he been in a relationship with Ozioma? Exchanging letters with her and coming to see her secretly without anyone knowing? Did he maintain a relationship with her from the nearby village under the guise of 'Emeka? Did he kill Ozioma four weeks ago and start his rampage on the girls?
She knew who she wanted to share this questions with: Osi, but when Dé Nwachukwu gave a specific instruction, woe betide anyone who went against it. As his first daughter she knew first hand what her father was capable of, he was a loving father but also very strict.
So it was safe to say pending further notice she was grounded!
But still....maybe she could sneak out to the house and be back in no time. She just wanted to see the pastor and she believed she could pull it off. However her younger sister was another case, she knew Joy very well and she knew if left unwatched her younger sister would leave the house the first chance she'll get. According to her: the killer was dead so she didn't see what the 'biggie' was. But Amara knew what the biggie would be if Dé Nwachukwu saw his daughter outside today.
It was generally believed the gods had struck the killer early that morning and it wasn't mere superstition that the indigenes of Amaife believed the deadly gods could still be hovering round the land. Hence the jubilation and show of appreciation all morning.
She could imagine the scene, dancing and burning of incense and pouring of alcohol 'hot' on the earth to wet and appease the gods' appetite.
Even now the drums could still be heard from the market square.
Someone knocked on the gate and Amara frowned. She remembered Paul saying he would stop by and explain himself but that was before she had seen the blood. Now she didn't want to see him.
She believed he was a very dangerous person and it was just unfortunate he was her best friend's brother.
The knock persisted and Amara yelled for her sister "Joy move your lazy body and go and open that gate osisó!"
She heard her sister grumble but also heard the shuffling of feet as she complied.
She didn't expect to see Osi. She was in her room when her sister barged in. "You have a visitor o"
Amara didn't bother asking who it was as she was expecting Paul.
She marched to the parlour prepared to give him a piece of her mind, a very large piece it was but then she saw the pastor standing looking at the charcoal painting of her mother and her mood softened immediately.
"Pastor...I wasn't expecting you"
Osi turned "I know...I just needed to see you"
She smiled "really? Why did you want to see me?" She asked innocently but she was suddenly aware it sounded like she was flirting or she was expecting a romantic declaration from him.
Instead Osi turned to stare at the drawing once more "I love this art....she's beautiful"
Amara smiled as she contemplated the drawing. The artist had done a good job, the face, the angles and most especially the eyes....
They settled into a comfortable silence as they looked at the drawing but then Osi said "I'm supposed to head back to PortHarcourt tomorrow"
"Oh...tomorrow?" She hated herself for sounding so disappointed. What was wrong with her?
"I'm not going with them?"
"Why...why aren't you going back?"
"I can't go back till the killer is caught"
"Oh...you really don't believe its Okudili then?"
He finally dragged his eyes away from the drawing "Amara I know who the killer is"
She gasped "me too"
"Its Stevenson"
"Its Paul"
They both said it together.
"Paul? Why do you think so?"
"Stevenson? Why do you think so?" It must have been love because they both said it together again.
Osi smiled and gestured with his hand, inviting her to speak first.
"Why do you say its Stevenson?"
"Yesterday early in the morning, I decided to pay him a visit...." He narrated his ordeal with Stevenson to her. When
he got to the part where the European had him cornered to the wall and shaking with fear, he tried to downplay it and sound a little manlier.
"So the letter is gone?" She sounded dismayed
"I'm sorry...I'd get it back I promise....that's what I'll use to nail him"
"So you mean he had the names of.....of...written in his notepad?"
"Yes?"
"That is strange and very suspicious but it doesn't hold much weight...he's a writer after all...he wouldn't have a hard time countering that accusation"
"That's the problem, he seems covered...everyone trusts him, but I know he's hiding something...he was worried I found something yesterday...he asked me 'what did you find?' And I don't think he had the names in mind"
Amara shook her head and sat down "now I'm getting confused...I never really liked the man to be honest...he's too nice, I always thought because he wasn't one of us but still..."
"Hold up..why did you seem so sure that Paul is the killer?"
Amara patted the space beside her inviting him to sit. She would break her neck if she continued looking up at him that way.
Osi settled on the couch and was immediately conscious of her scents..it seemed to envelope him, she smelled nice...she smelled wonderfully delicious, she-....was saying something very important right now.
"...so all this while he has been in a nearby village meaning he could come and go as he wished and nobody knew...he must have been very careful and he didn't answer to his real name, I heard someone call him 'Emeka'"
Osi frowned as he listened attentively, when she got to the groping incident, he felt his blood get hot. "What.....!who did you tell...that's sexual harassment!" He was livid!
The nail in the coffin was when she mentioned the blood stain.
"Blood stain....I believe I saw both of you after the Virgil...was it around that time?"
"Exactly...just before the people started shouting"
"Jesus! Did you tell anyone?"
"No...he said it wasn't him...I think he said I didn't do it or something like that then he tool off"
"My God...he killed him....how else would the blood get to him....he killed him!"
"But why? Why kill Okudili....why not let him face the judgement first...? After all everybody knows the judgement would be death"
Osi stood up. Sometimes sitting down didn't allow ideas flow as it should.
"I'm beginning to sense a pattern here...in the first place why try and frame Okudili up with the dibia's death?"
"Hmmm...the dibia had just revealed him as the killer that day so it seemed like an act of revenge" Amara suggested.
"Exactly...but what if it wasn't revenge....what if the dibia knew something...maybe knew the killer or something about the killer and he was killed to silence him..."
He frowned as another thought hit him "come to think of it, the very first day the dibia arrived he requested for some items for sacrifice...what if the killer met him later and bribed him to reveal Okudili as the killer? That way he framed Okudili as the killer because the Okudili also knew something about him...maybe he knew something he wasn't even aware of and then the killer couldn't take chances and he killed the dibia but this time he framed the Okudili again...putting him on the run...everybody would say oh...the dibia exposed him and he killed him out of revenge"
"I believe your theory..." Amara sounded breatheless. She was caught up "That way he killed two birds with a stone"
"Yes...no, he killed about half a dozen birds with a single stone" Osi corrected her solemnly. Sadly, it didn't just sound like a metaphor.
They were silent for some seconds lost in thought then she said "but if Paul killed Okudili last night then that would mean he's the killer"
"It would seem so...but I still have a nagging feeling about the European...the truth is we can't trust any of them"
"Me too...but I believe we can crack this together" she looked at him "we're a team?"
He nodded. Right now even if the Reverend drove down himself to pick him he wasn't sure he would leave. No...he couldn't leave those eyes. A man could drown in them easily. He school his head.
"We need a plan"
Pastor Batholomew was at the church office when Osi traced him. He studied the outline of the church once more, he could tell it had been a shopping complex that had been converted to a church and it was quite large. He waited outside the office as the pastor was having a meeting with some members.
Finally he joined pastor Bartholomew in his office.
"Pastor" he got up to shake his hand "I didn't know when you left earlier"
Osi glanced at the wall clock. It was quarter to 5. He admired the pastor's dedication to running the church, he wondered idly if the man had eaten yet.
He got down to business.
"Pastor...there's every possibility that I'd be staying behind tomorrow"
"Every possibility....what do you mean?"
"I mean I won't return to PortHarcourt tomorrow....I'm not ready to go...not yet"
"Hmm..."
"You don't need to provide shelter for me any longer...I'm prepared to look after my own housing as I plan to spend just a few extra days"
"I understand...is it just you?"
Osi nodded. Yes
"If its just you then there shouldn't be any problem with both of us sharing the house. It has three bedrooms after all"
"Woa......I'd be really grateful, thank you pastor"
"No...I should be the one thanking you...I appreciate your devotion to my village...you're a wonderful person pastor and its been a honour to know you"
"What do you mean you're staying behind?" They couldn't believe their ears. They had packed their luggage. The instruments were all locked in the bus in preparation for the next day journey and their pastor...their leader had just come home and announced he won't be following them back.
"I feel there's still work to be done here...we let the distraction get to us and now its hard to play catch up but I must do what I must"
"Pastor why do I feel you're staying behind because you're obsessed with solving this case?" Ovie asked with a frown.
"Which case...the killer is already dead" Bukky pointed out.
"Osi thinks otherwise"
"If that's the case we'll all stay then!" Greg declared.
"No...no...pastor Batholomew gave up his house for us for a full week...he's coming back tomorrow. He's agreed to accommodate me for some days"
"Pastor this is ridiculous...let's all go back"
"Bukky my mind is made up..before weekend I should be in p.h so no worries"
He headed towards the room. "I don't want to tell the deacon now because I want the Reverend to hear it from me first so I better call him now"
His friends watched him leave, shaking their heads in dismay.
"Maybe he actually cracked up a bit yesterday" Bukky said.
"He's really determined....I wish I could stay behind with him...I might speak to Batholomew my self"
"Does this mean we're still contributing money for his surprise party? I mean his birthday is on Wednesday and he could miss it" Ovie asked.
Bukky looked at him with fire in her eyes and he raised both hands "sorry I asked"
To be continued...
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